


Speak Now

by Rollinginthesheep



Category: One Direction (Band), Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: AU, F/M, One Shot, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:03:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rollinginthesheep/pseuds/Rollinginthesheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Then the moment arrived. The preacher man said the fateful words.</p><p>“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”  I felt Danielle, Perrie, Ed, Eleanor and the groomsmen look at me suddenly. The pews fall silent as Cara glances out as if daring someone to say something. Harry merely glances at the floor.</p><p>I feel Eleanor and Danielle shove me lightly with their hands. This is it.</p><p> </p><p>  <b>‘I don’t think you should wait.</b><br/><b>I think you should speak now.’</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	Speak Now

“This is literally the worst idea you’ve ever had Eleanor.” I whispered harshly my hands scrunching the material of my summer dress nervously peaking out the shaded passenger window of Eleanor’s cute little sports car. It was an unreasonably hot spring day and that was a rare occurence for this area according to every person we’d spoken to since this morning. Literally, the weather was the go to topic of the locals. It was rather repetitive after a while. Eleanor eyed me with her signature quirk of her left brow. She was wearing her shades but the brow had some sort of gravity pull that caused it to be visible above the rims of her shades. I had a childish temptation of reaching up and putting it back where it should be, hidden behind the lenses.

Bloody Eleanor Calder and her flawless goofy expressions.

“Taylor, you have sung about this exact situation before yet the very concept of ‘speak now’ doesn’t apply to you when it’s actually happening? When did you become such a chicken?” She asked me in a partial mocking way, reaching out to adjust my brunette wig. Today I was posing as Eleanor’s date as she had actually been invited to this travesty of an event. It was the only way I’d get past the amount of security that was provided and expected for a celebrity wedding. To stop gatecrashers or hysterical fans which were currently mobbing in front of the church.

I was the former but still, at least I had numerous connections on the inside. Louis and Niall were currently on stand-by if need be.

All I had to do was work up the nerve to get out of the car.

Which I couldn’t.

Was I really about to crash Harry’s wedding and ruin it?

Yes, I believe I was.

Because Harry couldn’t marry Cara Delevinge. Even his band mates could see that Harry wasn’t happy. Hence the rash decision to fly from where I was currently vacationing to England and travel to Harry’s home town.

This was insane.

If the paparazzi or anyone caught wind of the fact I was here, all hell would break loose.

I could almost read the headline now.

‘Taylor ‘desperate’ Swift crashes ‘ex-boyfriend’s’ wedding’

Maybe I was desperate. But I knew more than anything that if I didn’t go into that church and say something, I’d spend my life regretting letting Harry slip from my life. Harry and I were perfect and we’d fallen apart because we’d been too scared to show each other how much we’d meant to one and another. Too convinced by the random people who sent us hate on social networks because they believed they knew our lives better than we did.

Why did I let myself doubt one of the happiest relationships I’d ever had?

I was a fool to let Harry go. I was a fool to stand by and watch as Cara and he got all snugly. I was a fool not to respond when he’d tried to reach out.

But what if I was too late?

“Taylor I swear to god, if you don’t get out of this car in two seconds, I will use my defensive training on you!” Eleanor exclaimed from outside the passenger door. I hadn’t even noticed her get out of the car I had been so absorbed in my inner monologue.

I sighed squeezing my eyes shut and musing over my familiar lyrics I’d written about my friend’s Alison’s similar situation a couple of years ago. She’d been so upset when she’d found out he’d been getting married. Yet she didn’t do what I was contemplating doing. And she still sometimes regretted it now. I didn’t want to live with anymore regrets. Not now.

I opened my eyes and grabbed the door handle. “I am not the kind of girl who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion.” I sung quietly as I slid myself out of the car and Eleanor grabbed my wrist as we begun to walk toward the church.

“But you are not the kind of boy who should be marrying the wrong girl.” Eleanor sung back brightly and I laughed moving my arm out of her grip and linking it in the nook of her elbow. One of the boy’s security guards came over and begun guiding us through the hoards of fans and into the barricaded area to guest entrance the church. The people at the doors looked at me sceptically for a moment but nodded Eleanor and I through when she handed her invite over. Thankfully she had a plus one invite and Louis was already in the grooms party so he didn’t need an invite so she’d offered her spare place to me. Well Louis had suggested it and Eleanor fervently agreed. She loathed Cara with a passion. I assumed as much by the amount the brunette girl had ranted on about how snobby she was all the way to Holmes Chapel. I tried to remain impartial as I didn’t really know her. Still I couldn’t help but dislike her. Especially after all the stories I had heard from the guys.

Danielle and Perrie stood in the lobby in rather beautiful dresses. I felt under dressed, especially looking around at the rather glamorous people that surrounded us. I tried to ignore my paranoid tendencies as Eleanor guided me over to the pair. Danielle embraced Eleanor and the pair begun muttering quietly in full speed. I couldn’t even keep up. Perrie meanwhile gave me a warm hug.

I’d only met the girl a couple of times but she’d been rather welcoming to me when I’d dated Harry. She had a genuine smile and it comforted me somewhat. “Taylor are you alright?” She asked in a concerned tone.

“I’m feeling a bit overheated. Do you know where the bathroom is?” I asked wrapping my fingers around the crook in my right arm. Perrie nodded and pointed down the hallway.

“I’ll take you. Danielle had to talk to Eleanor about something.” Perrie replied lightly and we headed off down the narrow passageway, away from the crowds of chattering guests.

The passageway was cooler than the lobby and Perrie begun whistling coolly as we strode along awkwardly. The silence was calming until a sudden banging sounded from the room a couple of doors over. We both paused and glanced over at each other.

“MY DRESS IS RUINED!” A screech sounded and the voices were high-pitched and far too whinny. “I can’t be seen unless it’s all perfect. FIX IT NOW!” The voice continued furiously a moment later. Perrie’s lips twisted into a distinctively distasteful expression.

“Cara.” She murmured quietly and we continued to walk past the door. My eyes were glued to it, hoping for some sudden way to view what was going on in the room. As if a god out there was answering my prayers, the door swung open just as we passed and a brunette popped out. She looked vaguely familiar and I assumed she modelled with Cara. I curiously peaked past her tired and frustrated expression to see a glimpse of the infamous Cara. She was half turned away from the door shouting at some poor middle-aged woman who appeared like she wanted nothing more than to slap the girl silly.

Cara’s gaze slide past the brunette and onto Perrie’s and I’s. She narrowed her eyes for a moment as if trying to place where she had seen me before. I hoped that the wig was doing it’s job and she couldn’t recognize me.

I almost sighed in relief when a moment later the door was slammed shut and the brunette disappeared down the passage way. Perrie dragged me along and into the bathroom. I let out the breath I had been holding when she locked the door behind us.

“That was close!” She exclaimed. I nodded in agreement laughing now the stressful moment was over. I glanced at the mirror and fixed the wig anxiously trying to remain calm. “And she is yelling at a bridesmaid inside a room wearing a gown shaped like a pastry.” Perrie sung a moment later. I snorted harder.

“This is surely not what you thought it would be, I lose myself in a daydream where I stand and say!” I sung back, spinning dramatically to meet Perrie’s eyes and she grabbed my hands and begun to dance wildly like we were on the middle of the dance floor and not in a bathroom at the wedding I had just crashed.

“DONT SAY YES RUN AWAY NOW, I’LL MEET YOU WHEN YOU’RE OUT OF THE CHURCH AT THE BACK DOOR! DONT SAY A SINGLE VOW, YOU NEED TO HEAR ME OUT AND THEY SAID SPEAK NOWWWWWW!”We sang together and spinning around. I decided in that moment Perrie was becoming my new best friend. She just sang in a bathroom with me, knowing exactly how to calm me down. Singing always pacified me.

“Ready?” She asked me with a heavy breath. I nodded hesitantly and she guided me back out of the bathroom after unlocking the door.

—

Danielle and Eleanor were really not the two people you should trust with coming up with good ideas. I was currently sitting between the pair as they leaned across me to mutter ideas of how I should approach Harry. I could see him.

Standing there at the end of the aisle. Perrie was sitting beside Danielle at the end of the pew and I glanced at her occasionally. She would either meet my gaze encouragingly or be staring at her boyfriend Zayn who was standing next to Niall looking rather spiffy in a black and silver suit.

Louis wasn’t being covert at all. He kept waving at us and Eleanor would smile back and blow a kiss or motion for him to shut up. He winked at me. I almost slammed my face into my palm but opted to adjusting my wig in a fit of paranoia. Ed laughed from his position on the other side of Eleanor. He was enjoying this situation far too much.

I glanced away from Louis and studied the rest of the groomsmen. Niall was smiling at me and gave the thumbs up when he noticed my gaze. I smiled shyly in response and Zayn waved at him from beside him. Liam was on the other side of Zayn and was too busy staring at his girlfriend’s legs to notice anything else. In his defence Danielle’s legs look wonderful today, especially in her stiletto heels and lace top purple glittery dress. Eleanor meanwhile had a pale pink satin dress that flowed down to her ankles and she looked even more like a Disney princess than usual. Perrie was being more open about her cynicism with this union in her black and silver dress. I asked her if she had thought about that before she had dressed or she had made a polite mistake. She’d assured me she knew the social pass she was making. She had also done some rain dancing this morning just in case.

I loved this woman I swear.

And Ed meanwhile looked like he had rolled out of the gutter. Do grant he always was in a rugged state. He hadn’t even bothered shaving and had taken full advantage of the drinks he and the others had enjoyed the night before and was heavily hung-over.

My gaze slid over to the very person I had over thought seeing in the last year. Harry Styles stood there as flawless as ever in his suit. It took everything in me not to run to him in front of the gathering guests. But Eleanor’s grip held on my hands kept me from doing so.

His gaze was darting around the room as though he was searching for something or someone. I could see his family in the front row so it wasn’t his mother or his sister he was searching for. After a few moments of anxious darting of his gaze, his bright green eyes slid to mine.

I could feel Eleanor’s hand tighten on mine but I ignored the action focusing my attention on the gaze of the very person I’d dashed here to see. I wondered if he could tell who he was gazing at.

‘Swift’ He mouthed with a smirk on his lips as he gazed at me. I blinked. He could tell, even from a distance, with different hair that it was me.

Damn it Styles. Damn you and your perfection.

I nodded slowly. His smile widened at my response. His hand pointed up to his hair. ‘The hair?’

I rolled my eyes as he nodded appreciatively at my wig shooting me thumbs up.

This fond gesture was interrupted however, as the organs begun to play and the doors made a loud creak, swinging open behind me. Harry’s gaze held mine for a moment longer before he looked away. I sighed gazing at Eleanor who pulled one of her hands from mine and rubbed my back comfortingly, turning to gaze at the bridal party.

I followed her eyes and turned to see the bridesmaids and a cute flower girl heading down the aisle. The latter looked fairly grumpy having been stuffed in a dress that kind of swallowed her tiny body. She was literally tossing the flower petals in all directions and Ed laughed dryly at her grumpy actions.

The bridesmaids were far more controlled; pouting in a skilful way that could only be labelled as fellow models pouts. It was obvious that each of these girls modelled, even the girls that looked like Cara’s sisters.

They appeared to be wearing the ugliest dresses Cara could find. Every girl knew some brides purposely chose horrible dresses to make the bridesmaids look worse as to stop them upstaging the bride. Cara must be to be one of those brides. I couldn’t help but shudder in sympathy to the poor girl’s that would go through that for their friend.

Then the bride herself appeared. She was wearing what I assumed was a pastry in dress form. Her hair was pulled back so tightly that her dark eyebrows stood out more than usual. She looked like she was on the runway and lacked the warm smile that a girl should be wearing when about to marry the love of their life. It was in this moment I knew I had to stop the wedding. Especially when I gazed back down to Harry and met his eyes for a moment before they slid back to Cara’s with a flicker of change in his expression. He appeared as stoic and as grumpy as he did when stalked by the media.

I bit my lip and gazed at my hands as Cara and her father got closer and closer to the end of the aisle. I felt the pit in my stomach grow as she took each step closer and closer. I gnawed my lip harder until I felt it bleed lightly. Danielle nudged me lightly and nodded at the direction Cara was currently heading in. She leant over as the priest begun to speak.

“She floats down the aisle like a pageant queen, but he wishes it was you, he wishes it was you, doesn’t he?” Danielle cooed lightly a shifted version of my song in my ear. My tongue darted out of my lips and ran over my tongue smiling a small smile.

I gazed at her and she grinned back at me with a quirked smile.

“Your time is running out.” Eleanor murmured at us and I nodded anxiously. The man was speaking and I tried my best to focus on him was I was failing miserably. All I could see was Harry standing there with the wrong person. This wasn’t how the story should be.

My heart slid closer up my throat as the usual stream of the wedding ceremony slid along slowly, so much slower than it should be, I swear that time was moving at the speed of an ancient turtle.

Then the moment arrived. The preacher man said the fateful words.

“Speak now or forever hold your peace.” I felt Danielle, Perrie, Ed, Eleanor and the groomsmen look at me suddenly. The pews fall silent as Cara glances out as if daring someone to say something. Harry glances at the floor.

I feel Eleanor and Danielle shove me lightly with their hands. This is it.

‘I don’t think you should wait.  
I think you should speak now.’

My words haunted me and the energy they provided me, the confidence as I begun to rise from my seat. The silence pierced the air around me as people begun to notice I had stood up. Murmurs begun and the sound of running footsteps sounded as Louis sprinted down the aisle toward someone. I turned for a moment to see a random paparazzo that had managed to sneak into the church, revealing themselves as they started taking photos of the person who dared to interrupt the wedding between a boybander and the model.

Eleanor made a gasp as Louis nosily restrained the person with the camera and Ed cheered, breaking the horribly awkward aura of the room.

My hands begun to shake I gazed at the duo at the end of the aisle. I slid out of the pew and felt Perrie and Danielle tap my hands as I shuffled past.

“I am not the kind of girl who should be barging on a white veil occasion” I spoke and a murmur of recognition sounded through the guests as they identified the familiar words. I reached up to my hair and slid the wig off, handing it to Perrie before working toward the pair. Cara made a hiss as she recognised me. Literally, she hissed like a cat.

Harry’s eyes widened at the sound but his gaze didn’t slide off of mine.

“But Harry you aren’t the kind of guy who should be marrying the wrong girl.” I finished and I couldn’t believe I had fully quoted one of my songs in a setting like this. Still the words rang true. When I was scared, when I was unsure I used music to speak my mind. These words rang everything I wished I could say.

“I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be here. I don’t know, I should have said all of this a long time ago. I should have said it all before I let the words of petty jealous people ruin the amazing thing we had going. And I know that you probably have moved on considering where we are now but if there’s even a part of you that still believes in us then please don’t do this.” I spoke never tearing my gaze off of Harry, whose eyes glittered with an unreadable emotion as he stared at me.

“I love you Harry Styles and I haven’t stopped loving you for a single moment. If this is what you want I’ll go now.” I finished before pausing and letting my words sink in. Harry gazed at me and I tried to avoid the immense feeling of all eyes on us as I stood there holding my breath for what felt like eternity.

Harry’s gaze tore from mine as he turned to face Cara who looked like she wanted to slaughter me in front of her well dressed guests. I wondered if I’d be able to run a few miles away from here before she reached me in that pastries dress.

“Cara…look this isn’t fair on you, I know but-“ Harry begun and was cut off by Cara.

“YOU ARE LEAVING ME FOR HER? AGAIN? SERIOUSLY?” She screeched her hands flying to her hips. Harry looked vaguely terrified. He had no idea how to deal with hysterical women despite having a sister and a mother. My eyes widened as I took in the scene. “TAYLOR FUCKING SWIFT I SWEAR!” She shouted and I felt Perrie, Eleanor and Danielle appear around me.

Harry looked terrified still and his gaze shot back to mine for a moment. Cara let out a huff.

“You know what? Maybe this is a sign. Especially considering you said her name during sex that time.” She added and Harry blushed. My eyes were the size of golf balls at this point as that comment raised a mental image in my mind that I didn’t really want to imagine. Cara appeared to have calmed a little bit more now. She ran her tongue over her lips before turning to me and taking a deep breath.

“You can have him. It takes balls to do what you just did. He’s been puppy love over you since he came back to me. You broke him Swift I swear. I wish you rainbows and glitter and all that country stuff you are into.” She said dryly before saluting me and striding toward her family. The crowds murmured louder at this. 

Maybe Cara wasn’t so bad. Considering if I was her I would have slapped a bitch. Models were a weird bunch that was for sure. Who knows, maybe she had seen this coming.

Harry paused and glanced around slightly disbelieving at how quickly his former fiancé’s mood had shifted. Niall was the first to respond as no one quite knew what to do. He poked Harry on the shoulder and Liam strode down the aisle toward Danielle before picking her up and kissing her causing the audience to collectively ‘aww’. Well that was one way to defuse the tension.

Some of the crowd had started watching as Louis tried to keep the paparazzo pinned down. Eleanor rushed over trying to stop her crazy boyfriend from attempting a ninja kick to the guy’s head. Perrie was snorting at Harry’s dazed expression and Zayn was murmuring something to Niall as he poked his friend.

Harry’s gaze turned slowly to meet mine. I smiled at him tenderly. His brows relaxed as he begun to smile at me that familiar dimpled smile and my heart melted. He begun to move as if melted from his frozen moment. I begun to move toward him to and soon we were embracing tightly.

Come on I wasn’t going to make out with him with Cara and her family right there. I’m not that insensitive. Despite the fact Harry looked so utterly kissable in that moment and my heart was racing from the feeling of his warm and his toned arms around me. I almost melted to the floor once more. Dimples, tattoos, green eyes and curls, Harry Edward Styles had it all.

“Baby I didn’t say my vows so glad you were around when they said speak now.” He whispered into my ear and I giggled as I felt the curve of his lips against my neck.

“I love you Harry.” I said softly as he pulled away from my skin to meet my eyes.

“I love you too Taylor.” He replied.

_‘Real life is a funny thing you know._   
_In real life saying the right thing, at the right moment is beyond crucial._   
_So crucial in fact, that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time._   
_But lately what I’ve began to fear more than that, is letting the moment pass with saying anything._   
_I think you deserved to look back on your life without this chorus of resounding voices saying, I could of but it’s too late now._   
_So there’s a time for silent, and there a time for waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say._   
_You’ll know it.’ - Taylor Swift_


End file.
